NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY (IRAQ)

a political party in iraq, known as the ndp (arabic, al-hizb al-watani al-dimuqrati); licensed in 1946 under the leadership of kamil chadirchi.

An outgrowth of the old Ahali group, (People's Group) the party had semi-socialist views and attracted supporters from the wealthy, well-established families as well as from Shiʿa and left-leaning middle-class people who believed in gradual change. In 1949 the party was banned along with the Iraqi Communist party. Even so, its members were involved in the strikes and riots that occurred in the early 1950s in opposition to the Anglo-Iraqi treaties. When free elections were held in 1954, the NDP won six seats but lost them when Prime Minister Nuri al-Saʿid suspended parliament and banned opposition parties. In 1956 the NDP applied for permission to form a party with Istiqlal (Independence party) the supported neutrality, an Arab federation, the liberation of Palestine, and political freedom. Denied, the Istiqlal, NDP, the Communist party, and the Baʿth party formed the United National Front, or United Popular Front.

Supporting the opposition to the monarchy, Chadirchi initially backed Abd al-Karim Qasim in his coup that overthrew the monarchy in June 1958. By 1961, Chadirchi opposed Qasim, even though Muhammad Hadid, second-in-command of the NDP, accepted the post of minister of finance in Qasim's government. As a protest to the antidemocratic nature of the regime, in October 1961 Chadirchi closed the NDP and ceased publishing alAhali.

see also ahali group.

Bibliography

Marr, Phebe. The Modern History of Iraq. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1985.

reeva s. simon